Arson A Possibility In Mobile-home Fire

January 25, 1986

Investigators were examining ``burn patterns`` to determine if a mobile-home fire that killed a Gary woman and her four children was deliberately set, Dr. Daniel Thomas, Lake County, Ind., coroner, said Friday. Thomas said burn patterns found inside the mobile home suggest that a flammable liquid might have been splashed around inside the trailer before the fire started Thursday morning, but he stressed that arson was only a possibility and that investigators have yet to discover a motive for such an act. Those killed were Beth Ann Spriggs, 24, and her children, Charles, 3; Kenneth Jr., 2; and 9-month-old twins Brandy and Brian. Spriggs` husband, Kenneth Spriggs Sr., was at work when the fire started around 11 a.m.